Europe

german-french-consortium-to-build-eu’s-first-exascale-supercomputer

German-French consortium to build EU’s first exascale supercomputer

Today, France’s Eviden (part of cybersecurity, cloud, and high-performance computing group Atos) and German modular supercomputing company ParTec, announced they had won a contract to provide the very first exascale supercomputer in Europe.

The JUPITER project will cost €500mn in total. The computer itself will cost €273mn and run on Arm architecture SiPearl Rhea processors and Nvidia accelerator technology. It will be operated by the Jülich Supercomputing Centre in Germany. 

JUPITER will be the first system in Europe to surpass the threshold of one billion billion calculations per second. The aim is for it to support the development of high-precision models of complex systems, which could help solve questions regarding areas such as climate change, pandemics, and fusion energy. Of course, it would also enable intensive use of AI and analysis of large data volumes.

JUPITER stands for Joint Undertaking Pioneer for Innovative and Transformative Exascale Research (just in case you were wondering). The European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) announced the project last year, and put out a call for tenders in January. 

But let’s back up for a moment — what exactly is an exascale supercomputer? 

One billion billion flops per second

An exascale system, as already mentioned, is a supercomputer or high-performance computing (HPC) system capable of performing a billion billion calculations per second. This is equivalent to one exaflop. 

In other words, an exaflop is a measure of performance for a supercomputer that can calculate at least one quintillion (exa-) floating point operations (flop) per second. Meanwhile, an exabyte is a memory subsystem packing a quintillion bytes of data. 

Building and operating exascale systems pose various technical challenges, including power consumption, heat management, scalability, and software optimisation. 

The world’s first exascale supercomputer is the Frontier, built by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and housed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. It was deployed in 2021 and reached full capacity in 2022. It is set to be superseded by El Capitan at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, also by HPE. El Capitan will deliver over 2 exaflops when it comes online mid-2024. 

Meanwhile, the fastest supercomputer in Europe, owned by the EuroHPC JU, is the Lumi (Large Unified Modern Infrastructure). It sits in the CSC data centre in Kajaani, Finland, began operating in 2021, and can achieve more than 375 petaflops (one thousand million million flops per second), with a “theoretical peak” at 550 petaflops. That makes it the third fastest supercomputer in the world as of June 2022. 

German-French consortium to build EU’s first exascale supercomputer Read More »

vc-atomico-raises-e1b-in-glimmer-of-hope-for-european-tech-startups

VC Atomico raises €1B in glimmer of hope for European tech startups

It is no secret that European tech funding has seen an alarming decline throughout the past 24 months. Thankfully, there are still some bright spots. London-based venture capital firm Atomico is challenging the trend, having raised $1.1bn (€1.05bn) of new funding to invest in tech startups. 

Atomico will use the funds across both its new venture and growth funds, according to a US regulatory filing seen by the Financial Times. As such, it will be hoping to at least soften the gloomy predictions from its own data presented earlier this year on the state of European tech investment. 

According to figures released by the VC in June, European tech was on track for a 39% reduction across the year, dropping from $83bn (€79bn) in 2022 to $51bn (€48.65bn) in 2023. That follows a harsh 2022, which had already seen a 22% drop in tech startup funding across the continent, down from $106bn (€101bn) in 2021.

Economic headwinds have prompted new investment strategies, with restructuring leading to mass layoffs and hiring freezes for startups across the region. US participation in European deals has also dropped, according to data from Pitchbook. In July, American participation in VC deal value was down 69% year-on-year.

However, more trend-resilient sectors such as pharma and biotech have escaped relatively unscathed. Furthermore, the generative AI gold rush is spurring optimism for software startups in the field. 

Europe the new ‘tech superpower’ Skype founder says

Established by Skype founder Niklas Zennström in 2006, Atomico has backed well-known companies such as Klarna, Stripe, Telegram, and Masterclass over the years — plus another 100+ startups. Among them are Finnish game developer Supercell, German AI translation platform DeepL, British carbon project financing platform Opna, and German electric jet developer Lilium. The firm has $5bn (€4.76bn) under management and previously raised $820mn (€780mn) for its fifth fund in 2020.

Despite the current dip in funding for the sector, Zennström, who grew up in the same Swedish university town as the author of this article, is bullish about the future of European tech. In particular, he is excited about the number of second- and third-time founders that have learned from failures and success on previous rides on the startup merry-go-round, and can build stronger businesses as a result. 

Indeed, in a blog post from this summer, Zennström stated that Europe had the “potential to create more value from technology than any other region,” and the opportunity to become a “tech superpower,” creating a better technological future, which would truly meet the needs of modern society. We are here for it.

VC Atomico raises €1B in glimmer of hope for European tech startups Read More »

these-are-the-key-technologies-the-eu-wants-to-safeguard-from-china

These are the key technologies the EU wants to safeguard from China

In the latest round of geopolitical tech chess, the European Commission today published a list of critical technologies to keep safe from geopolitical rivals, in an effort to bolster the bloc’s own economic (and not only) security. 

The document, prepared by the Commission’s digital, defence, and trade chiefs in consultation with the member states, will serve as the basis for an outgoing investment and export control tool. 

The list consists of 10 technologies, with applications ranging from potential human rights violations to military robots, quantum supremacy, genetic modification, and interstellar travel. The Commission reportedly considers four to be particularly dangerous, should they fall into the wrong hands. These are: 

  • Advanced semiconductor technologies (microelectronics, photonics, high-frequency chips, semiconductor manufacturing equipment).
  • Artificial intelligence technologies (high-performance computing, cloud and edge computing, data analytics, computer vision, language processing, object recognition).
  • Quantum technologies (quantum computing, quantum cryptography, quantum communications, quantum sensing and radar).
  • Biotechnologies (techniques of genetic modification, new genomic techniques, gene-drive, synthetic biology).

The remaining six technologies are advanced connectivity and navigation; advanced sensing technologies; space and propulsion technologies; energy technologies (including fusion and hydrogen); robotics and autonomous systems; advanced materials manufacturing and recycling. 

The bloc’s industry chief, Thierry Breton, stated that Europe was “adapting to the new geopolitical realities, putting an end to the era of naivety and acting as a real geopolitical #power.” Make of that use of a hashtag what you will. 

Today we are de-risking our economy by identifying 10 areas of #CriticalTechnologies⤵️

A major step for our #resilience.

Europe is adapting to the new geopolitical realities, putting an end to the era of naivety & acting as a real geopolitical #power. pic.twitter.com/Q9Rt1nkfoU

— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) October 3, 2023

While China is not explicitly referred to in the document, sources familiar with the matter told Politico that it was “like the EU’s Voldemort. The country that cannot be named.”

The new era of soft power tech

Ever since the beginning of civilisation, technology has defined geopolitics. Think marauders rumbling over Ancient Egypt in chariots made possible by the invention of the wheel, or, much closer in time, the principle of mutual assured destruction (MAD).



With globalised supply chains and the rise of digitalisation, it is not as simple as one actor has the tech while the other doesn’t, and thus gains the upper hand. Never before has the intersection of geopolitics and technology been so intricate. 

The battle for semiconductors that power so much of not only our day-to-day existence but also military technology around the world will only intensify as AI requires more and more powerful chips. In addition, the last few years have seen a growing number of cyberattacks on government agencies and service providers, while some authorities turn to digital technology to surveil their own people. 

Digital sovereignty and “de-risking” of economic policies have risen high on the political agenda, along with mitigating rising geopolitical technological threats — without disturbing sensitive supply chains.



One way of doing this is through export controls. In August, US President Joe Biden unveiled an executive order banning new investments in Chinese tech sectors related to artificial intelligence and quantum computing. This was merely the latest move in a tech trade back-and-forth spanning several months, with China restricting exports of two key semiconductor minerals in July on grounds of ”‘national security.”

Both the EU and the US have been busy trying to shore up domestic semiconductor and chipmaking capabilities. Germany in particular has been eager to throw substantial amounts of cash at the problem. However, it still might not solve one of the most immediate key issues for either — a lack of highly skilled engineering talent. Still, they are looking ahead and playing the semiconductor long game. 

Relationship with Beijing characterised by low levels of trust

While neither the EU nor the US is likely to establish independence, doing as best one can now might well turn out to be prudent. The global chip industry is very much dependent on one company — Taiwan’s TSMC. It produces close to 60% of the world’s computer chips, and about 90% of the most advanced ones. 

Taiwan is under increasing geopolitical pressure from China. For instance, its imposing mainland neighbour has been performing military exercises simulating a blockade of the island state, and President Xi has openly declared it is his generation’s obligation to seek reunification. 

While tensions in the South China Sea are undoubtedly rising, it need not even come to military confrontation for the West to lose access to TSMC’s mega fabs. Look at the political developments in Hong Kong over the past few years — it might only take the “election” of a Beijing-friendly government in Taiwan. 

In the words of Commission Vice President Věra Jourová when commenting on the EU’s forthcoming landmark AI Act, “We see this as setting the standards for the democratic world but China is not part of this because in the world of technologies we are more rivals than partners.”

Jourová further added that there was a “low level of trust” between Beijing and the remainder of the G7 countries set to meet in Kyoto next week to discuss the evolution of AI technology. Indeed, it seems the age of tech trade diplomacy has only just begun. Hopefully, the inevitable conflicts on the road ahead can be solved by just that — diplomacy. 

These are the key technologies the EU wants to safeguard from China Read More »

poland-wants-eu-to-stop-sleeping-on-digital-ids

Poland wants EU to stop sleeping on digital IDs

The European Commission has been too focused on tackling Big Tech and not enough on improving digital services for citizens.

That is according to Poland’s minister of digital affairs, Janusz Cieszyński. He believes the EU needs to shift its digital policy focus to helping Europeans interact with government services.

Speaking to TNW at the recent Tallinn Digital Summit in Estonia, Janusz Cieszyński said that digital ID services that are prevalent in Estonia and increasingly so in Poland under his remit, need to be a higher priority EU-wide.

“There’s a lot of focus on [tech businesses] and there’s not enough focus on legislation which will help citizens, which will help ordinary people for instance to travel around Europe with your ID in your phone,” he said.

“When there was the difficult time of the pandemic, we were able to roll out the Covid certificates very quickly and now we have fallen back asleep, and I don’t think that things are going fast enough.”

Cieszyński leads Poland’s digitisation ministry, including its mObywatel (mCitizen) initiative, which provides a mobile app for users to store their ID documents. The ministry has also updated the app to allow Ukrainian refugees in Poland to upload and store their documents.

He said that while there’s a slew of digitisation efforts across member states, there should be more cohesion on an EU level.

The European Commission has focused heavily on tackling Big Tech with several new regulations.

Citizens first

Thierry Breton, the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, who delivered a keynote speech at the summit in Tallinn, championed many of these efforts.

This includes the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act, two of the European Commission’s flagship tech regulations that it believes will tackle misinformation on social media and create fairer competition in Europe.

“I’m not sure that as a consumer I have seen an improvement during Mr Breton’s tenure as Commissioner,” Cieszyński said. 

“It is obvious to me as a person who has supervised numerous rollouts of e-services, that if you would be committed to having an e-ID which would be universal for all European countries and spend five years on this, we would already have been using this for quite some time,” he said.

“I think it’s just [that] the Brussels bureaucracy is too detached from the citizens and their base. I think that’s the thing.”

A spokesperson for the European Commission declined to comment on the minister’s remarks.

Upcoming EU elections may hinder progress

The EU has debated and proposed a unified approach for digital IDs several times over the years.

The Commission proposed legislation for a secure digital ID system in 2021 that would be in effect by 2030.

In June this year, EU member states and the European Parliament reached an agreement on an EU-wide framework for a digital ID that would be interoperable around the bloc.

Now the proposal must weave its way through the usual EU law-making hurdles. With the European Parliament elections next year coinciding with the end of the current Commission’s mandate, it is difficult to affix a timeline for the intended legislation.

The Commission spokesperson did tell TNW that the framework would provide Europeans with “consumer control, security, convenience and privacy.” 

“These common European rules will ensure that solutions can be used seamlessly cross-border, also creating new business cases for companies,” they said. “The Commission already started the technical groundwork with Member States to ensure this interoperable, secure, and user-friendly digital personal wallet becomes a reality for citizens.”

The European Commission does have a series of projects involving member states, universities, and private sector companies underway to examine various digital ID use cases in travel, payments, healthcare, and education.

Examples include the European Wallet Consortium (EWC), which is testing interoperable IDs for travel, and Digital Credentials for Europe (DC4EU), which is working with several European universities and government departments to examine how a digital ID for the education sector could work. 

E-government services

Estonia is often held up as a bastion of how to implement digital services. 

Since the ‘90s, the Baltic state has developed a digital-first approach to government services with most functions now available online. Most notably, citizens can vote online in elections; in fact, in the 2023 parliamentary elections more than half of the votes were cast over the internet. A forthcoming change in Estonia’s digital policies will allow for the completion of divorce proceedings online.

But pushing that agenda can be challenging.

The government has contracted Estonian IT services firm Nortal to build several of its digital public services.

Chief growth officer Elizabeth Kiehner said that the company is trying to “export” its technology to other countries but there are numerous obstacles to overcome.

“The prerequisite to any of these things working is having a leader with the political will. There could be very little that’s currently digitised but there needs to be a leader with political will and commitment to do this,” she said.

Competing for tech talent

For governments with ambitions to expand digital services, one of the biggest challenges is finding the tech talent it needs.

Cieszyński told TNW that governments must compete for tech talent against the private sector without being able to offer the higher salaries typically expected at bigger tech companies. 

It is common for public bodies to outsource development to private companies. However, Cieszyński believes that it is imperative for governments to bring as much tech development in-house as possible. 

Government departments and bodies need to know what’s in the “black box” and understand what’s under the hood and how it works.

“You have to remember that this is software that will be used for the processing of government data, of citizen data, super sensitive stuff, and it is also, something which comes to mind very easily in these difficult times, a matter of security. If you don’t know what’s inside this black box, how can you be sure that your citizens, the ones that you’re supposed to protect, are actually protected?” Cieszyński explained.

“We work a lot with vendors. We use modern technology, we buy from the top brands from around the world but we want to have a good proportion of experts that are in-house on our payroll, so that we have the rights to whatever code they write, things like that.”

Currently, Cieszyński’s department has 1,400 people working on e-government services.

Will political mandate cycles shift priorities?

The minister stated that e-government and digital IDs should be front of mind for the next European Commission.

Cieszyński is from Poland’s ruling PiS party, which faces a general election this month where the complexion of the Polish government could change. With that, so could priorities when it comes to digital policies.

As for the European Commission, its mandate is up in less than a year. Rumours abound that Thierry Breton will be seeking the top job of Commission President.

But just what will the next Commission’s priorities be?

During his keynote speech in Tallinn, Breton dropped one or two hints when talking about supercomputers and quantum

“One of my favourite subjects, quantum. Of course, we are working very hard on quantum computing, quantum communication, quantum sensing and cryptography,” he said. “This is something we will push hard and will be a very interesting subject for the next Commission.”

Poland wants EU to stop sleeping on digital IDs Read More »

french-antitrust-authorities-raid-nvidia’s-local-offices

French antitrust authorities raid Nvidia’s local offices

Bolstered by the demand for advanced chips for generative AI, Nvidia has had a terrific run of it of late. However, employees at its offices in France were in for a bit of an abrupt awakening on Wednesday as the country’s anticompetition authorities raided the company’s local offices in the early hours of the morning. 

“Following authorisation from a liberty and custody judge, the investigation services of the Autorité de la concurrence carried out a dawn raid at the premises of a company suspected of having implemented anticompetitive practices in the graphics cards sector,” a statement issued by the French authority reads. 

Meanwhile, the body took the time to note that such raids did not presuppose and existing law violation and that any such occurrence could only be established by a “full investigation.”

The French anti-competition watchdog did not mention Nvidia by name. However, people familiar with the matter confirmed to the Wall Street Journal, who first reported the raid, that the “graphics card sector” company was indeed the California-based tech giant. Nvidia has declined to comment on the event. 

The <3 of EU tech

The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol’ founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It’s free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!

Nvidia has made a name for itself making highly sophisticated graphic processing units — GPUs. These are specialised hardware designed for parallel processing. They excel at tasks like graphics rendering, scientific simulations, and machine learning (as opposed to general-purpose chips such as CPUs that are optimised for sequential processing and don’t support advanced deep learning). 

On track for 90% of the market?

These features make Nvidia chips highly suitable — and coveted — for developing advanced AI models. Just this week, two major French companies in cloud services and telecom announced they would acquire Nvidia’s powerful H100 chips. Indeed, with the Autorité de la concurrence stating that the raid was part of a wider investigation into competition practices in the cloud computing sector, this may indeed have been what prompted the unannounced “visit.” 

Meanwhile, even countries such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, have rushed to secure Nvidia chips to power their AI ambitions. The recent boom in generative AI saw the company shoot up to a valuation of $1 trillion earlier this year, after it projected a 64% jump in quarterly revenue. 

While not building any of its chips itself (it employs TSMC’s megafab in geopolitically vulnerable Taiwan for that), according to the New York Times, Nvidia currently accounts for more than 70% of AI chip sales. However, according to the WSJ, analysts predict that the company could cover as much as 90% of the market as it introduces more and more powerful chips going forward. 

Unless, of course, France and the Autorité de la concurrence will have something to say about it. The EU is no stranger when it comes to regulating the competition practices of big tech. It is likely we could hear more in regards to the chipmaker’s dealings with authorities within the bloc going forward.

French antitrust authorities raid Nvidia’s local offices Read More »

european-central-bank-assembles-‘infinity-team’-to-identify-genai-applications

European Central Bank assembles ‘infinity team’ to identify GenAI applications

European Union bureaucracy might not conjure the most exciting of connotations. However, being part of the “infinity team” surely puts a superhero-esque spin on your average Frankfurt grey high-rise working day. 

Minute takers watch out. After surveying employees on where deploying generative AI could be most effective, the ECB’s newly established working group has launched nine trials, the results of which could speed up day to day activities of the financial institution.

Large language models, the organisation says, could be deployed for tasks including writing draft codes, test out software faster, summarising supervision documents, drafting briefings, and “improving text written by staff members making the ECB’s communication easier to understand for the public.” 

The Central Bank’s chief service officer, Myriam Moufakkir, discussed the ECB’s use of AI on Thursday, in an organisation blog post. (To be perfectly straight, she doesn’t mention the “infinity team” by name, but other reports submit this to be the assigned designation.)

Commenting on the ECB’s core work of analysing vast amounts of data, Moufakkir said, “​​AI offers new ways for us to collect, clean, analyse, and interpret this wealth of available data, so that the insights can feed into the work of areas like statistics, risk management, banking supervision, and monetary policy analysis.”

Existing ECB applications of AI

Moufakkir said that the ECB is already deploying AI in a number of areas. This includes data collection and classification, as well as applying web scraping and machine learning to understand price setting dynamics and inflation behaviour. 

Furthermore, it applies natural language processing models trained with supervisory feedback to analyse documents related to banking supervision. This is done through its in-house Athena platform, which helps with topic classification, sentiment analysis, dynamic topic modelling, and entity recognition. It also uses AI to translate documents into member state languages. 

“Naturally, we are cautious about the use of AI and conscious of the risks it entails,” Moufakkar further noted. “We have to ask ourselves questions like ‘how can we harness the potential that large language models offer in a safe and responsible manner?’, and ‘how can we ensure proper data management?’.”

Without specifying exactly how, she added that the ECB was looking into “key questions” in the fields of data privacy, legal constraints, and ethical considerations. With the EU’s landmark AI Act in the works, the use of financial data of its citizens should be a particularly intriguing landscape to navigate. 

European Central Bank assembles ‘infinity team’ to identify GenAI applications Read More »

eif-invests-e40m-in-female-founded-climate-tech-growth-fund

EIF invests €40M in female-founded climate tech growth fund

The European Investment Fund (EIF) announced today it would invest €40mn with Blume Equity. Based out of London, the VC was founded by three women in 2020, and invests into European high-growth climate tech scaleups. 

Blume Equity backs companies focusing on decarbonisation as well as broader environmental sustainability. These include carbon accounting platform Normative, sustainable femtech startup Elvie, Matsmart Motatos that looks to combat food waste, and IoT industrial SME data support provider Sensorfact. 

The €40mn comes from the InvestEU program as part of the EIF’s mission to support high-growth and innovative SMEs across Europe, along with a regional mandate from the Dutch Future Fund. EIF joins other Blume Equity investors, including Swedish pension fund AP4 and Visa Foundation. 

“By supporting Blume with one of the largest investments EIF has made to a first time fund, the European Union highlights its commitment both to the environment and to supporting the growth-stage ecosystem in Europe,” said Clare Murray, one of Blume Equity’s co-founders and partners. “This partnership will help us continue our profit with purpose mission to support entrepreneurs tackling the climate emergency.”

Cutting-edge technology to play a major role in EU green transition

Climate tech investment pace has suffered along with other funding over the past year. However, there is reason for optimism for the sector — ironically, much due to the all-too immediate urgency of tangible climate events, such as the wildfires and floods of the summer. 

According to a report published by the Economist last week, VC investment in climate tech has surged over the past decade. Meanwhile, the recent slowing down highlights the need for a diversification of funding sources. This includes government agencies and alternative pools of capital, such as pension funds. 

“The green transition must be accelerated to meet our current climate and environmental challenges,” EIF Chief Executive Marjut Falkstedt commented. “Innovation in all sectors of our economy and cutting-edge technology will play a major role in achieving it. With the backing of the InvestEU programme and the Dutch Future Fund, we are very happy to invest in the female-led Blume Equity Fund to support disruptive businesses with a positive impact on people and planet.”

More money for climate tech to grow

Meanwhile, London-based HSBC also announced today it would make $1bn (€940mn) in funding available to climate tech startups globally. The banking and financial services company said it expected the funds to go toward EV charging, battery storage, carbon removal technologies, and sustainable food and agriculture. Indeed, the Economist study identified food and agriculture technology as a sector that is receiving disproportionately little funding compared to its contribution to global carbon dioxide emissions. 

Furthermore, HSBC also launched a new climate-tech venture capital strategy, and will invest $100mn (€94mn) in Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, a separate platform that supports cleaner energy source technologies.   

“Access to finance is critical for early-stage climate tech companies to create and scale real-world solutions,” said Barry O’Byrne, CEO of global commercial banking at HSBC. They also need ample support in making the jump from early to late stage — a funding gap that is gaining more and more attention. 

EIF invests €40M in female-founded climate tech growth fund Read More »

europe’s-homes-are-wasting-too-much-energy-–-these-startups-have-a-plan

Europe’s homes are wasting too much energy – these startups have a plan

Single-glazing. Old electric-powered heat emitters. Walls with hardly any insulation. Damp throughout the ground floor. Welcome to Europe. 

While these problems vary in prevalence from country to country, even nations rated highly in assessments of household energy efficiency have room for improvement. Sweden, for instance, often does very well in such analyses. But for Magnus Petersson, cofounder and chief executive of Stockholm-based Dryft, there’s plenty of work still to do.

“We need to fundamentally transform the houses,” he says. Dryft, a startup with 150 employees that has raised €6 million to date, numbers itself among a fleet of new businesses targeting the energy renovation market. 

Petersson and his fellow cofounders noticed rising demand for home retrofits around 2019. That demand has only rocketed since because of energy price rises caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The <3 of EU tech

The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol’ founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It’s free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!

Dryft and others like them are using tech to help homeowners find out how efficient their home really is — and what they can do to improve it. The treatments these firms propose will differ dramatically from house to house but the idea in general is to offer “holistic” advice.

Companies such as Dryft aren’t just about selling you a new heating system – the point, they say, is to find out the most suitable methods for making a dwelling more efficient within a certain budget, whatever those methods may be. 

Some homes will need lots more insulation, while others will already have that but require a more efficient method of ventilating the internal spaces, for example. Where would a homeowner’s cash best be spent?

Energy Tetris

“When we sell energy renovation to you as a customer, that energy renovation is a Tetris made up of different services,” says Petersson, referring to the popular block-sorting video game in his analogy. 

With Dryft, customers get a free 30-minute video consultation where they can talk through features of their property with an energy adviser. This yields a summary of what kind of retrofit might best suit the dwelling and how much it could cost. If the customer decides to proceed, Dryft conducts a more in-depth survey and can then go on and actually do the required renovation work as well.

The company currently covers the Greater Stockholm area but has plans to expand across Europe. Since 2020, Dryft has carried out renovation projects large and small in nearly 6,000 homes.

Petersson explains how the firm’s algorithm estimates the projected energy savings post-renovation. This algorithm is constantly being refined with data on the outcome of real Dryft projects, he adds, meaning that it ought to get more and more accurate over time. 

As an example, he shares a case study of a 1970-built, four-bedroom house in Stockholm. Dryft upgraded the double-glazing to triple-glazing, installed a heat pump, ventilation system with heat recovery, and also some smart controls. The whole renovation cost the equivalent of €38,000 and the household is currently saving €2,900 per year in energy expenditure. 

At that rate, it will take about 12-13 years to recoup the investment. In the meantime, annual energy consumption in the property has plummeted by more than 40% and its Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating has jumped from G to C. This should increase the value of the property, notes Petersson.

Show me the money

There’s no doubt that extensive energy retrofits are not cheap. Dryft and startups in the same market are also trying to help customers take advantage of government subsidies or grants. 

“People are planning renovation roadmaps and that is what we are actually showing to our customers,” explains Justus Menten, cofounder of Enter, an energy retrofit-focused startup in Berlin. 

Enter offers financing options to help people pay for their energy renovation in instalments and the firm supports customers in seeking out applicable subsidies that could lessen the upfront cost of the work they want to do. Enter works with partner companies who carry out the actual plumbing, engineering work, or installation of insulation, for example.

The startup, which has 135 employees and has raised €19.4 million so far, has around 1,000 paying customers per month, adds Menten. Enter has an app that can estimate the energy demands of a dwelling and how specific retrofit projects — say, upgrading the loft insulation — will impact that. 

Customers can try out different energy renovation measures and see the projected results in terms of emissions savings, reduced costs, and the potential increased value of their property, for example. A virtual retrofit before you decide on the real thing.

Enter also has a team of experts who subsequently survey each dwelling and confirm the accuracy of the app’s suggestions and projections.

Tools that help homeowners understand what renovation measures are available, and what their impacts might be, are much needed at present, say observers.

“From my research, there is a huge gap for householders to find high-quality information – that can delay renovations taking place,” says Kate Simpson at Imperial College London, who has studied the use of data in energy renovations. She notes that it can be difficult to accurately predict energy savings post-renovation because there are so many factors that affect consumption, from the weather to how much the occupants decide to heat their home.

Crucially, startups gathering data about energy consumption must ensure that they have consent to do so, she adds.

Data is key

Data protection is very important, though access to useful information on the current energy efficiency of homes around Europe is far from standardised, notes Michael Hanratty, chief executive of BERWOW, a startup in the Republic of Ireland. 

BERWOW uses an automated tool to analyse data from the Irish equivalent of an EPC – a Building Energy Rating (BER) certificate. The tool proposes energy renovation interventions that might be suitable for a given dwelling. These suggestions can be followed up with an on-site survey to get formal quotations for specific works.

Hanratty explains that the firm’s digital tool, built by Dublin-based tech firm Gamma Location Labs, was ready to go in 2017 but new GDPR legislation regarding data protection in 2018 meant BERWOW had to come up with a different system for accessing individual users’ own BER certificates. It requires users to provide their unique electricity meter number and upload proof of address to an online system before the BER can be released to BERWOW for analysis. 

“You’d imagine with the urgency of the climate crisis that there could be easier solutions to accessing this data,” says Hanratty. Homeowners who don’t yet have a BER for their property, or who don’t want to open up access to it, can select from one of 60 generalised Irish dwelling types to get an approximated result.

Hanratty adds that he hopes to expand BERWOW to other countries, though the methodology for retrieving EPC information differs greatly from country to country within Europe, he points out. 

Since launch, BERWOW has clocked more than 60,000 visitors to its live tool, which is published on the websites of SSE Airtricity, a major local energy provider in Ireland, among others. Those initial enquiries have resulted in a total of 2,400 surveys of properties to date. 

BERWOW has one employee — Hanratty — and has not needed to raise any external funding, besides initial research funding of €112,000 from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland.

Thinking big

There are plenty of private homeowners with the means to carry out their own renovations around the continent. But they are just one slice of the pie. What about the big businesses that construct large residential developments, or social housing providers?

In the UK, Hubb is targeting such organisations. The company has its own software that creates a digital twin of a specific property. Hubb’s machine learning system can then model how to make each dwelling more energy efficient. Founder and chief executive James Major says he wants to do this on a big scale and is currently in discussions with two large companies in the UK — though no contracts have been signed just yet.

Major wants to demonstrate to firms constructing thousands of houses that, should they improve the energy performance of these buildings even slightly, there could be massive reductions in demand on the electricity grid, for instance.

“If you increase your fabric improvements by 10% or 15%, we could save X amounts of megawatts that you need to connect to your development,” says Major. And this could apply to existing properties requiring a retrofit, too. Doing it at scale would in principle cut down local energy demand drastically.

With the climate crisis worsening while millions of homes around Europe still require energy renovations of some kind, and with consumers expressing their desire to spend significantly less on heating in our age of inflation, it may be time to think big – and fast — about retrofits.

Europe’s homes are wasting too much energy – these startups have a plan Read More »

world’s-first-crewed-liquid-hydrogen-plane-takes-off

World’s first crewed liquid hydrogen plane takes off

At a somewhat small and unassuming airport in Maribor, Slovenia, German hydrogen propulsion startup H2FLY has quietly been building up to a major milestone in zero-emission aviation over the summer. And all the hard work has come to fruition, with the successful completion of the world’s first crewed liquid hydrogen-powered flights. 

Before any aviation history enthusiast out there goes “but what about the Tupolev Tu-155?” — yes, the Soviets did try out liquid hydrogen as fuel 35 years ago, but only for one of the three engines. In contrast, H2FLY’s HY4 has now operated using only liquid hydrogen (as opposed to the gaseous kind) as fuel, relying solely on the hydrogen fuel-cell powertrain for the entire flight.

On Thursday, this TNW reporter was present for the fourth in a series of test flights. The event marked the culmination of Project HEAVEN, an EU-funded partnership undertaking to demonstrate the feasibility of using liquid, cryogenic hydrogen in aircraft. (That is short for High powEr density FC System for Aerial Passenger VEhicle fueled by liquid HydrogeN, just FYI.)

Liquid vs. gaseous hydrogen as aircraft fuel

While yesterday’s demonstration flight lasted somewhere around the 10-minute mark, a few days prior, the HY4 and its two pilots stayed in the air for 3 hours and 1 minute — a feat that required 10kg of hydrogen. If using up the aircraft’s full storage capacity of 24kg, it could stay up for 8 hours. 

The <3 of EU tech

The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol’ founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It’s free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!

“It feels really amazing, it is the perfect teamwork coming to life,” said one of the pilots, Johannes Garbino-Anton, after the flight. He added that the technology “works perfectly,” and that the biggest difference to a normal aircraft is the lack of vibrations and noise. And, the lack of carbon dioxide emissions. 

The two test pilots after the flight
The mood was distinctly jubilant following the series of four successful test flights. Credit: Linnea Ahlgren/TNW

H2FLY’s propulsion system consists of hydrogen storage, a 120kW fuel-cell energy converter, and an electrical engine. All in all, this summer was H2FLY’s eight flight test campaign. The hydrogen-electric HY4 has been flying since 2016, but this summer’s breakthrough consists of operating the plane on liquid hydrogen, as opposed to hydrogen as gas. 

Liquid hydrogen is more energy dense than its gaseous counterpart. That means that it requires significantly lower tank weights and volume. In the world of air transport, especially when retrofitting planes, this equals not having to throw out as many passenger seats, or reduce cargo space, i.e. payload. 

But perhaps more significantly, it unlocks a much greater range. For the HY4 test aircraft, this equals 750km on gaseous hydrogen vs. 1,500km on liquid — or double the distance. On the other hand, liquid hydrogen requires cryogenic temperatures (around -253°C), which adds to the complexity of transporting and refuelling. 

Retrofitting existing airframes with hydrogen fuel-cell propulsion system

The HY4, made out of glass fibre and carbon fibre, will not go into commercial production. The next step from H2FLY will now be to scale the fuel-cell system to megawatt capacity. The H2F-175 system will unlock not only longer range, but also altitudes of up to 27,000 feet. In a partnership with Deutsche Aircraft, the two intend to retrofit a 30-seat Dornier 328 demonstrator with H2FLY hydrogen-electric fuel cells and begin test flights by 2025.